They Seek a Country Wedding
It’s not so long ago that a country wedding meant hay bales, a marquee from the next town over, and a dad in charge of mowing the lawn to within an inch of its life. But these days, that humble scene has had quite the glow-up. The days that countryside nuptials were considered quaint and budget-friendly have long since passed — we are living in the era of the big, fat regional wedding. And you are cordially invited to attend.
Article by Alys Marshall | Photography by Jem Hawker
It’s springtime out here, and if you listen closely you can almost hear them – firing up their old tractors with slashers attached, unhitching portaloos, laying mulch on garden beds and fresh gravel on driveways, all while obsessively reaching to check their four weather apps on a rotation. They are the fathers of the brides, the ones who listened as their rosy-eyed, newly engaged child told them, ‘A home wedding will be cheaper’ and ‘Won’t the garden be a beautiful backdrop.’ And they said yes, it would.
I’m sure a version of this beleaguered father [or mother, aunt, uncle, grandparent] figure – a picture of stress and anticipation in the days leading up to an on-farm wedding – has been around forever. God knows this generation of brides and grooms are not the first to shakily exchange vows at their childhood home. But something has shifted gear in recent years.
Today, the global wedding industry is estimated to be worth 72 billion dollars. Four and a half billion of which come from Australian weddings. Last year the average cost of a wedding in Australia was 65,482 dollars according to a report by Bride to Be magazine. That figure sat at 36,000 dollars only three years prior.
The jump is extraordinary, especially considering the cost-of-living crisis Australians have been grappling with over the same time period. We want to save at the local supermarket, save on international holidays, save on rent but not, it seems, at the altar. Instead, today’s brides and grooms [and often their families] are leaning into weddings in all their extravagance. Big guest lists, black tie dress codes, freshly shucked oysters, champagne towers, bespoke wedding stationery, long tablescapes set out under the stars.
Curated, sleek and modern weddings amongst the hustle and bustle of a city are ‘out’. Instead of churches, bridal Pinterest boards light up with grassy aisles and tent marquees in paddocks. Country elements make a bold appearance, à la celebrity couple Abby Champion and Patrick Swarzenegger rocking matching cowboy hats, featured in Vogue Weddings. And there, riding on the coattails of this newfound Big Wedding trend, are the regions.
“When my partner Olly and I got engaged we both couldn’t really imagine getting married anywhere apart from where I grew up,” Amber Woods said. Her family home, Boori, is located south of the NSW/QLD border town of Goondiwindi, about five hours from Brisbane.
“Because both [Olly and I] were at boarding school and then in Sydney for so long, so many of my best friends in the world have never been to my home, let alone to this district. I just really wanted to be able to welcome them all to where I grew up.”
“We were a little bit nervous to go to Mum and Dad and ask because we know it’s a huge undertaking to host a wedding on your family farm. It’s a lot of work and time and energy and money – basically a labour of love.”
The couple needn’t have been nervous to ask – Amber’s father Richard promptly responded by saying he’d already been planning the day for twenty-eight years. In fact, he planted the olive grove behind the garden for this very occasion while Amber was still in utero.
And while Amber herself sits on the more casual side of the fence when it comes to wedding planning, she admits her dad does not. Garden jobs that have been on to-do lists for decades are suddenly underway, a new deck is under construction and the backyard’s humble lily pond.
“When my partner Olly and I got engaged we both couldn’t really imagine getting married anywhere apart from where I grew up,” Amber Woods said. Her family home, Boori, is located south of the NSW/QLD border town of Goondiwindi, about five hours from Brisbane.
“Because both [Olly and I] were at boarding school and then in Sydney for so long, so many of my best friends in the world have never been to my home, let alone to this district. I just really wanted to be able to welcome them all to where I grew up.”
“We were a little bit nervous to go to Mum and Dad and ask because we know it’s a huge undertaking to host a wedding on your family farm. It’s a lot of work and time and energy and money – basically a labour of love.”
The couple needn’t have been nervous to ask – Amber’s father Richard promptly responded by saying he’d already been planning the day for twenty-eight years. In fact, he planted the olive grove behind the garden for this very occasion while Amber was still in utero.
And while Amber herself sits on the more casual side of the fence when it comes to wedding planning, she admits her dad does not. Garden jobs that have been on to-do lists for decades are suddenly underway, a new deck is under construction and the backyard’s humble lily pond has tripled in size.
“We’ve been cheekily calling him a dad-zilla because he loves hosting, we love having the house filled with friends, we love having a long lunch and I think Dad is just viewing this as an extension of that.
“It’s his dream come true to have all of our friends just over here hanging out, so this is pretty much Richard Wood’s Nirvana, he’s just loving it.”
Because Amber and Olly are having a privately hosted wedding, Amber explained their guest list has had the freedom to balloon out. It is currently sitting at 180 people, but she laughed as she said it has the high potential to reach closer to 200. “That’s another beauty of having it at home.”
It’s great news for the local businesses around them, too. With booze supplied by the Pally Pub, caterers coming from Narrabri, a marquee from Inverell and sandwiches and snacks for the days leading up to the nuptials coming from a favourite Goondiwindi cafe, The Larder. “It’s a nice way to lean on the local businesses that we love so much,” she said.
Roma-based photographer Jem Hawker is another such regional vendor who has come into her own during an uptick in the popularity of country weddings.
“I think guests especially really appreciate a remote wedding,” she said. “Everyone is pretty used to a Hunter Valley wedding or that kind of thing, so the novelty of driving for hours and hours to get to a teeny-tiny small town church, then busing it out to someone’s family property is fun because it’s so removed from the normal.”
After learning the tricks of the trade from some of Australia’s best regional wedding photographers – the likes of Lil Hamblin and Edwina Robertson – Jem went out on her own and quickly started to pick up work well off the beaten track.
When asked about some of the most memorable weddings she’s worked, Kununurra sprung quickly to mind. The bride and groom, both cattle station workers from the north, had decided to hold the event just out of the remote township in WA’s Kimberley region. “It was this picture perfect spot, they chose the Kununurra campdraft grounds with these rocky red ranges in the background and it’s right on the banks of the Ord River,” Jem explained.
Her journey up there from rural Queensland – clocking more than 3,000 kilometres – was an adventure in itself. “My partner Charlie and I were invited along as guests at the wedding and I left all the booking of things up to him,” she smiled. “I was pretty surprised to hop off the plane in Darwin ready to jump in our hire car and drive the 800 kilometres to Kununurra, only to see Charlie pull up in a Winnebago van.”
After arriving and photographing the ceremony, which took place in front of a giant boab tree, Jem was told to jump in the helicopter.
“It was just the pilot, the bride and groom and me in this R44 chopper and where we went scared the absolute daylights out of me.
“The helicopter landed on its skis on a big rock on the side of a cliff and the pilot said ‘just take it nice and slow’ as the couple jumped out. Then I went back up in the chopper and flew around them taking pictures.
“I’ve got this shot of the bride literally running across the top of these cliffs, it was just mad in the best way.”
But Jem is quick to assure that a bold, majestic background isn’t the key to a fantastic country wedding. Neither is an insanely beautiful dress, although it does help. She pointed to some more of her favourite photos, this time taken on a family farm just out of Coonamble, in northwest NSW.
“We were out on a fallow cultivation paddock and the bride was just in the most awesome dress I have ever seen, this huge Vera Wang gown, I couldn’t believe it was out there in the dirt.”
But the couple was just so relaxed and easygoing and that really comes across in the photos. You could see all their guests were relaxed too and that’s the beauty of a wedding at a family home like that.”
Now, in a recent turn of events, Jem Hawker finds herself soon to be on the other end of the camera, after her partner dropped to one knee while they holidayed in New Zealand. When interviewed for this piece, she was still on cloud nine about the whole thing. “I was just jumping around like a silly salmon when he pulled the ring out,” she laughed. “The engagement was so special to me.”
When it comes to the wedding itself though, she admitted the decisions ahead of her are overwhelming. The biggest, like many brides, is the where. Where will she feel most comfortable, where will her fiancee, her family, his family, their friends? A quick look on Pinterest and Instagram has been enough to make her head spin with unending trends. Her only firm stance is that she would never get married in the city.
She’s seen too many beautiful regional weddings to consider anything else. Because what lingers beneath the marquees and fairy lights, amongst olive groves and on river banks, is a sense of personality. Not just of the bride and groom, but of their families throwing open their gates, friends and small businesses pitching in. And in their guests, who travel the often-absurd distances for the joy of it all.
